Category Archives: Life

After attending Sasquan, the World Science Fiction Society convention in Spokane, Washington, we took a trip 75 miles south to Pullman, Washington, home of Washington State University. Along the way we admired the huge rolling hills of the Palouse region, and such natural wonders as Steptoe Butte (named for a US Army officer who lost a battle to the Palouse tribe) and Kamiak Butte (named after Chief Kamiakin, a Yakima and Palouse leader that faced off against the US Army). Due to extremely heavy smoke from forest fires in British Columbia, Idaho and Washington, we couldn’t see any of the natural wonders. It was mostly an imaginary admiration.

A few days later, we drove from Pullman to Bremerton, Washington. Pullman is next to the Idaho border, and Bremerton is 350 miles away. Decades earlier, before roads were widened, straightened, added, bridged, etc., the trip was almost 400 miles, one way, with most of that trip through — nothing.

The navigator for the journey was not familiar with the route, but given an iPad and Google Maps, she was prepared for the intricate navigational challenges. First step, drive north from Pullman 14 miles to Colefax, WA, then turn left on Washington 26 for 137 miles to Vantage, Washington, on the banks of the Columbia River. Between Colefax and Vantage, there is — nothing.

Animated GIF (created by Google Photos) of several still photos taken between Colefax, Washington and Washtucna, Washington.

During this first leg of 151 miles, from Pullman to Vantage, we saw fewer than a dozen vehicles on the road. That includes passing through Colefax, the seat of Whitman County. We did see the occasional farm building, power line, or highway sign, but even those were few and far, far between. A screen shot of Google Maps reveals nothing, which is revealing.

Washington Highway 26, heading west, as shown on an iPad. Note the helpful directions at the top, advising you to stay on 26 West for 53 miles until you reach 26 West.

After about an hour, as we crested one hill only to see miles of more of the same, the navigator started giggling. Several minutes later, at the crest of the next hill (these are big hills, and even at 65 mph it takes a while to get from one crest to the next), she burst out laughing. We stopped in Washtucna, mostly because we’d never stopped in Washtucna in perhaps a hundred trips down this highway. We saw one person at the combination gas station, convenience store, museum, and thrift shop.

Between the yellow-tinged sky (due to smoke) and the miles and miles of little more than sagebrush and tumbleweeds, the mind is starved for green. Due to the severe drought, even the small rivers and irrigation ditches were dry, and everything was brown.

Eventually we came to the broad, blue waters of the Columbia River. A couple of hours later, we crested the Cascade Mountains at Snoqualmie Pass, and dove into western Washington’s riot of evergreens. Even in the middle of a spectacular drought, western Washington fairly glowed with green.

Traffic picks up on Interstate 90 as we head into the green expanse of western Washington. It is 234 miles from Pullman to Snoqualmie Summit.

Don’t you go to hospitals and clinics to be free from pain? You don’t go to a clinic to suffer from more pain. Wouldn’t a “Pain Relief Clinic” or a “Pain Cessation Clinic” or a “Pain Mitigation Clinic” or an “I Am In Pain And Want It To Stop Clinic” make more sense?

True fact: there was a copy of Dante’s Inferno on one of the waiting room tables.

St. John Baptist Church in Columbia recently installed a powerful memorial to victims of gun violence in the greater Washington, DC, area. On an embankment behind the church are simple frames, and on each frame is the name (if known), age, and date of death of those killed with a gun in 2014. The resulting display is striking.

Panoramic view of the display memorializing victims of gun violence in the greater Washington, DC area in 2014. Click on image for a larger view.

As Columbia, Maryland is a suburb of Baltimore, presumably the memorial includes Baltimore, Washington, DC, and the area in between. But no matter how you define it, the field of T-shirts is quite moving. The range of ages, from the very young to the very old, is also sobering.

The stark simplicity of the memorial is stilling: these are shirts that will not be filled, and in many cases the shirts are for victims many times too young to wear an adult T-shirt.

My thanks to the St. John Baptist Church for taking the time and effort to remind us of what we have lost.

Tesla sells electric cars. These are not hybrids, with both a gas and an electric engine, but a pure, electric engine car. Traditionally, electric cars were limited to commercial operations in and around warehouses and other short-distance operations, or in locations where the exhaust of a gasoline or diesel engine could harm or kill people. A few people purchased electric cars for short-haul commutes.

Tesla has grander ambitions: they wish to produce full-size, full-featured automobiles. Since gas stations assist gas-powered cars, Tesla decided to set up electric charging stations for Tesla cars — across the entire United States. These are images of a Tesla Supercharger station near the Denver Airport.

Tesla operates a network of Supercharger stations across the US, designed to recharge a Tesla electric car in “minutes instead of hours.” Photo by Kathleen Charters.Closeup of one of the Tesla Supercharger stations near the Denver Airport. Photo by Kathleen Charters.

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The legislative branch is undergoing some much-needed patching. To the right you can see the very tip-top of the Jefferson Building, part of the Library of Congress, behind the Capitol. Legislatives rarely go there.